Nearly 1,000 workers in this country died from heat exposure between 1992 and 2002, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. About a third of those workers were in the construction sector.
Roxana Chicas is trying to prevent more outdoor workers from dying because of the heat.
Chicas is a nurse scientist at Emory University and has been working to develop a wearable sensor patch that would warn workers if they’re in danger of overheating or close to another heat-related medical problem.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Roxana, what’s the inspiration for this patch?
ROXANA CHICAS: So the inspiration comes from farm workers working outdoors in the heat and having the highest rate of heat-related mortality, 35 times more likely than any other occupation. And so we wanted to develop a biopatch that could help farm workers while they are working to keep them safe so that they are not having heat stroke and heat-related illnesses.
BRODIE: So how exactly does it work?
CHICAS: The biopatch was created in collaboration with Georgia Tech engineers, and it's placed on your chest, like right on your sternum. And the biopatch has several sensors that monitors basically like their vital signs just to show how heat is affecting the body. And over time, that data that we gather will train AI to recognize when someone is in danger and eventually alert them in real time.
BRODIE: How do those alerts work?
CHICAS: So, what we are envisioning is that those alerts would go to the worker's cellphone, to ... an app, and also perhaps to their coworkers who are working next to them, so that they would both hear the alert. And they would take some precautions. And the, the coworker would have some awareness to keep an eye on their coworker, if they notice anything wrong, to encourage them to take a rest, to take a break, to drink some water.
BRODIE: What metrics is the sensor looking at? Like how are you gauging whether or not somebody is being affected by working in the heat?
CHICAS: So several metrics. We are monitoring: heart rate, skin temperature, skin hydration, physical activity. And so all of that data — also oxygenation rate. So all of that data comes together and we put it together and we are looking for signals that may indicate that a worker is heading into the danger zone.
BRODIE: It also kind of sounds like based on those metrics, this could be useful for things that are happening to people that are not heat-related. Like there are other reasons why, for example, your oxygen level or your heart rate might be not where it should be.
CHICAS: Yes. You know, I've had several people contact us ... saying that this biopatch, you know, could also help them in different situations that they may have. So people who have chronic COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder ... I think it really opens the door to the imagination of what all we could monitor.
BRODIE: And is the goal then that once somebody gets an alert, they say, "OK, I gotta take a break." They maybe get some water, they go in the shade or go in somewhere air conditioned, and then does the sensor, does it then tell them when their vitals are safe enough to go back to work?
CHICAS: We hope to be able to do that as well. Because, you know, we want workers to be aware of their body and how it's responding. And I think that's really something beautiful, because sometimes you don't know why your body is working the way it is. You may attribute it to something that you ate or something that happened yesterday.
But if you have something there that in real time is telling you that, you know, your core body temperature is about to exceed, you need to take a break, you're working too hard. I think that that would be quite helpful.
BRODIE: What kind of testing have you been doing on this?
CHICAS: We have tested this and developed it with farm workers in the state of Florida. ... Our goal was to test it on 100 farm workers, and we ended up with 168 farm workers. Which shows really how interested they were in this technology and being able to contribute to better working conditions for them.
BRODIE: And what did you find during that testing?
CHICAS: Well, we found a lot of enthusiasm from the farm workers, for one. And they believe in the science and are eager to participate in the science. And they also told us that when they were wearing it that they completely forgot that they had it on. And that was something really important, that it needed to be something that they could wear that didn't obstruct them while they were working, that it wasn't uncomfortable.
BRODIE: Did you find that the data that it was collecting, the vitals that it was collecting, were accurate? I'm wondering if you found like false positives or even false negatives on some of the workers maybe thinking they were having a problem when they weren't, or vice versa.
CHICAS: It's actually quite accurate. And the way that we were able to make sure it was accurate is that we actually did some pilot testing where the workers wore other biomonitoring equipment so that we could compare. And our biopatch did extremely well. And so that's why we decided to test it on more farm workers.
BRODIE: So when this is ready to be fully deployed, I'm wondering how you envision that happening. Is this something, for example, that employers maybe would be required to offer their employees? Or would this be something that maybe people could get, you know, through their health insurance or something? How do you envision this being deployed?
CHICAS: That's a great question. I mean, what we have thought about is we, and we're not certainly clear on this, but what we have thought about is that we want to develop this product once it gets released so that it is accessible to as many people as possible, and especially farm workers, who we know have low wages.
And yes, we would love for the agricultural industry or the outdoor industry as a whole to embrace it and to use it with our workers as a way to prevent heat related-deaths that are preventable.
BRODIE: How big of a dent do you think something like this can put into the problem of people dying because of the heat, especially folks who have to work outside?
CHICAS: I think it could be quite impactful to be able to just monitor your physical activity because many of these workers, you know, sometimes they're pushing themselves. They think, you know, I can, I can do a little bit more, and they just continue pushing. But if you have had something that objectively tells you, don't push yourself, I'm hoping that that would really make an impact and get them to slow down.
BRODIE: Are you optimistic that employers will be as enthusiastic about this as the employees in your testing were?
CHICAS: You know, that's a great question. And we've actually received a lot of requests from, believe it or not, the construction industry, who is really concerned about their workers. And so we are hoping to partner with construction companies also. We're working on partnering with farm workers, some growers, so that we can show them the potential of this biopatch and hopefully save people from dying in the fields or when building homes.
-
The victim was an older adult male, but officials have not released any additional details about the case. Temperatures this spring have been much hotter than average. -
According to National Weather Service data, temperatures have averaged about 8.3 degrees above-normal so far this month – the third-hottest start to April on record in Phoenix. -
The Industrial Commission of Arizona voted to adopt heat safety guidelines for workplaces in the state. But labor groups still hope for enforceable regulations. -
Arizona labor groups are calling for state regulations to require specific protections from heat in workplaces. But actions from the state have so far fallen short of what workers have called for. -
As the Industrial Commission of Arizona considers workplace heat safety recommendations, some employers say they would welcome new heat rules, but others worry about overregulation.
